Hi All

I wanted to write you a quick update before the youth group arrives from Lima on Saturday.  We have had to stay in Iquitos for the last couple of weeks for several reasons.  First of all, I was sick and had to go through a bunch of medical tests but am doing much better now.  Also we have had a lot of other things that we had to do.  As I mentioned in a previous email, we received some relief aid from Global Partners for the flooding that took place this past year.  

The water has finally gone down to where we can reconstruct some of the buildings that were damaged so we have had to buy and get materials out to the affected villages.  We also had to get the materials sent to Maynas where the September team is going to build a church.  The water, when it did go down, went down quickly so getting the materials to Maynas has been difficult.  One day we had the delivery truck bring the sand as close as they could to the river, then dump it out.  It was still about 1-2 miles away so we had to load it up into bags and take it on a motorcycle truck the rest of the way.

  This took 7 hours and everyone got sunburned.  This week we had to take the sand from the place we stored it to the boat which only took about 2 and a half hours but I feel for the people in Maynas that will be carrying it up the hill to the village.  We still have to get the cement there but have to wait so that the cement doesn’t harden from the humidity.

This past week we found out that the Pastor’s son from Nueva Esperanza was bitten by a Bushmaster snake which is very poisonous.  They took him to Yanashi where they gave him fluids and an injection for pain and sent him home.  We sent some money to get him to Iquitos.  When he got here we took him to a clinic and they said if he did not get the anti-venom, he could lose his foot or even die since the venom was enclosed in a pocket in his foot.  

Thankfully we were able to get an offering for the medicine and the little boy is almost back to normal.  They headed back to their community yesterday.

On Saturday, I went with one of the people from the Iquitos church to present and evangelical program in a residential treatment center for aids patients.  It was a lot of fun and I was able to pray with an 18 year old that probably doesn’t have much time left on this earth, to receive Christ. (Photo: Viriato, the boy from Nueva Esperanza with a snakebite)

We have been busy with a lot of other things such as Lucy has had classes these past two weeks and we both have had to preach here in Iquitos. 

 We have a lot of things planned for this year and hopefully can get them all done.  Lucy has a pastoral meeting with Ps. Leiter, Ps. Harol and Ps. Oswaldo and I on Thursday.  We are looking at plans to start equipping the lay leaders in the communities since we now have more pastoral staff.  Please pray for wisdom to know how we can best accomplish this.  Also if anyone has any teaching material in Spanish, it would be appreciated.  I am very grateful for the Spanish Wesleyan resources on crea which have been extremely useful.(Photo: The residential home for aids patients)

Well, I better get busy now.  We have to go starting buying the food for the Lima team and have a few things we need to fix around the church.  Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and please write.

In Christ,

Kayleen